Attorney General's statement in full

3:44PM BST 27 May 2004

Here is the full text of the statement by US Attorney General John Ashcroft on the arrest of radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza:

This morning I am announcing the arrest in Great Britain of Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, also known as Abu Hamza. Hamza is the Imam of what was known as the Finsbury Park Mosque in London, prior to the closure of that mosque by British authorities.

At the request of the United States, Hamza was arrested early today by the Metropolitan Police of New Scotland Yard. He is being held on terrorism charges that were filed in the United States.

Hamza faces charges of conspiracy to take hostages and hostage-taking in connection with an attack in Yemen in December of 1998. The hostage-taking resulted in the death of four hostages.

Hamza is also charged with conspiracy to provide and conceal material support to terrorists and providing and concealing material support and resources to terrorists and a foreign terrorist organisation, specifically al Qaida.

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These charges are related to Hamza's alleged attempts in late 1999 and early 2000 to set up a training camp for violent Jihad in Bly, Oregon, here in the United States.

Hamza is also charged with providing material support to al Qaida for facilitating violent jihad in Afghanistan, as well as conspiracy to supply goods and services to the Taliban.

The maximum sentence for hostage-taking, the charges directed toward Hamza, is death penalty or life imprisonment.

Hamza also faces a maximum sentence of up to 100 years in prison on the additional charges contained in the indictment.

We are actively seeking Hamza's extradition from Great Britain to face justice in our courts on these serious charges. An 11-count indictment was unsealed today that was returned by a Federal Grand Jury in the southern district of New York in April of this year.

An indictment contains allegations, of course, and defendants are presumed innocent under our law until and unless proven in a court of law.

The indictment alleges that from about December 23 1998 until December 29 1998, Hamza and others plotted to take hostages in an attack in Yemen.

According to the indictment, Hamza provided a satellite phone to the leader of the faction of the Islamic Army of Aden and other co-conspirators in a hostage-taking plot.

The indictment alleges that Hamza received three calls from that phone to his home on December 27, one day before the terrorists stormed a caravan of vehicles containing 16 tourists, including two Americans, and then taking them hostage.

The indictment further alleges that Hamza spoke to the co-conspirators after the attack, agreed to act as an intermediary for them, and ordered 500 British pounds-worth of additional air time for the satellite phone being used by the terrorists.

On December 29 in 1998, when the Yemeni military attempted to rescue the hostages, Hamza's terrorist co-conspirators used the hostages as human shields. The military did overpower the terrorists but four hostages were killed and several others were wounded.

The indictment alleges that one of Hamza's co-conspirators, the US citizen, travelled from London to New York and raised money for Hamza's mosque.

Those funds were deposited into a mosque account used to fund the travel, at the request of Hamza, of two co-conspirators to Afghanistan.

Later in March or April of 2001 the indictment alleges Hamza sent directions to one of these co-conspirators to seek out a front line commander at the training camp for violent jihad in Afghanistan.

Finally the indictment alleges that Hamza conspired to supply goods and services to the Taliban.

It is alleged that from about the spring of 2000 until September 6 of 2001 Hamza posted messages on the Supporters of Shariah website urging his followers to donate money, goods and services to Taliban sponsored programmes in Taliban controlled areas of Afghanistan.

The investigation that led to today's arrest was conducted by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the joint terrorism task force in New York city, including the New York city police department with the assistance of other FBI and other federal agencies across the country and around the world.

I want to thank Assistant Attorney General Christopher Ray of the criminal division and US Attorney David Kelley of the southern district of New York for their leadership on this case.

The investigation and today's arrest also received substantial assistance from the Metropolitan Police at New Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service in Great Britain. I thank them for their dedication and their international effort in the war against terror.

This war against terrorism is being fought on many fronts. It is a war where innocent lives are endangered not only by the terrorist who carries the bomb but those that recruit and equip the terrorists.

As today's arrest makes clear the Department of Justice is bringing the full weight of the criminal law against those who support the activities of terrorists.

The United States will use every diplomatic, legal and administrative tool to pursue and to prosecute those who facilitate terrorist activity.